A smoking cessation program developed by the University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy will be deployed through Safeway pharmacies, the university announced. As part of the program, Safeway pharmacists will receive special training in counseling techniques.

It's one of the first partnerships of its kind and another example of how community pharmacy will be stepping into a more preventive healthcare role. You can expect to see more types of these smoking cessation programs along with other proactive health interventions tackling weight loss and encouraging healthier behaviors.

According to new research published in peer-reviewed healthcare journal Infant, Child, & Adolescent Nutrition, children who start their day with a cereal breakfast - even if that cereal is presweetened - tend to have lower body mass indexes (BMIs) and less chance of being overweight or obese than children who eat other breakfasts or skip the meal entirely.

The opportunity for weight loss certainly hasn’t gone away — sales of diet-aid liquids were up 12.8% to $1.2 billion for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 9 across food, drug and mass (excluding Walmart), according to SymphonyIRI.

"Yo-yo dieting" — the repetitive loss and regain of body weight — does not negatively affect metabolism or the ability to lose weight long term, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center reported in a new study published in the journal Metabolism.

People with higher levels of education and higher income have lower rates of many chronic diseases compared with those with less education and lower income levels, according to "Health, United States, 2011" — the government’s annual comprehensive report on Americans’ health released Wednesday.

Researchers from the Duke University Medical Center on Monday released a public health study finding that even maintaining the current prevalence of obesity in the United States would realize savings of almost $550 billion over the next two decades.

Obesity has risen dramatically across the United States in the last 30 years, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of the U.S. population is obese, including 17% of children and adolescents.

Obesity adds more to healthcare costs than smoking does, according to a study published in the March Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Americans make hundreds of millions of New Year's resolutions every year, following some to the letter and ignoring others. Health-related resolutions are among the most common, giving pharmacy retailers a way to pitch in and help.

United Health Foundation’s "2011 America’s Heath Rankings," released Tuesday, found that increases in obesity, diabetes and children in poverty are offsetting improvements in smoking cessation, preventable hospitalizations and cardiovascular deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday launched a new effort to address childhood obesity using successful elements of both primary care and public health. As much as $25 million in funding made available through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will support a four-year Childhood Obesity Demonstration Project.

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SPECIAL REPORTS

Pharmacy’s battle for recognition continues

Fifty years ago this summer, President Lyndon B. Johnson secured his place in history by signing into law the legislation that created Medicare and Medicaid. To commemorate the anniversary, Drug Store News has put together an exclusive report on the effect that Medicare and Medicaid have had on the retail pharmacy industry and how it has transformed the role of the pharmacist. more...

IN THIS ISSUE

In this issue, DSN profiles Rite Aid and how the company is achieving a vision to become a retail healthcare company that delivers a higher level of care to its communities; takes you on a tour of Sears; offers insight into millennial shoppers and more. Click here to view the issue.